Infinite Stratos: Sweet Wine (Houki x Ichika)
by kurotsuba
Summary: What happens when a drunk Houki confesses her love to a confused Ichika...? Houki x Ichika twoshot fluff. Inspired from Kenta Namiki's IS fanfic 'Tale of the Orange Bird'. T for tsundere violence, slight alcohol and flashback ecchi.
1. POV: Ichika

**PHASE 1  
><strong>**ICHIKA**

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><p>The Silver Gospel incident.<p>

An hour had passed since the lights out throughout the seaside resort, but Ichika Orimura just could not sleep. He tossed and turned on his futon as he pondered about that incident: he was certain that he was almost overpowered by the rouge IS, but it suddenly loosened its grip, giving him an opening, and he managed to drive Yukihira Type-2 through it to shut it down permanently.

Then, another memory back from the night before came to haunt his mind once more. The shy but serious face of his childhood friend, Houki Shinonono, asked him if he saw her as a girl, whilst placing his hand onto her…breasts.

Heat crept across his cheeks at that thought and his sat up abruptly. His shook his head wildly to disperse the recollection. There was something that Houki wanted to say, he knew; he could tell from her expression…

"Urgh! What the heck am I thinking about?" he ruffled his hair in irritation as said his thoughts out loud. Almost immediately after he had spoken, an alarm clock whizzed past him, inches from his face, and crashed onto the wall, where it broke apart. "Shut up, you idiot—I'm trying to sleep here!" His sister, Chifuyu Orimura barked in annoyance before turning her back at him to sleep.

Ichika shivered and smiled weakly. He had forgotten that he was sharing room with his fearsome sister today. He sighed quietly, got up and tiptoed to the door. He needed to get out and breathe some fresh air, to clear his clouded mind. Before his finger touched the door frame, it was suddenly pulled open, and the person he had least expected stood in front of him, a wooden katana resting on her shoulder.

"H-Houki?"

"I…Ichika."

They stared at each other for a moment. Finally he began first, "Ah, Houki…There's something I want to ask—"

"T-This isn't a good place to talk. Come with me!" She dragged him roughly into an empty room that was conveniently next to his.

Once the door was shut, he looked at Houki with a confused expression and opened his mouth to speak, but the awkwardness that was emitting from Houki made him snapped it shut again. Houki took in a deep breath and the words came out in a rush, her face scarlet, "Um, Ichika…y-you know, about last night… What do you think of me?"

"Huh? What do I think of you? Uh…you're my childhood friend, right?"

Houki's lips twitched. Her body shook and he could feel a dark aura emerging from her back. She gripped the katana even tighter.

"I-Ichika… _You idiot!_"

The katana narrowly missed his head as she brought it down on him. "That's not what I meant at all!"

"Then I…I don't get what you mean!"

"Am I just a childhood friend to you? Nothing _more_?"

"Huh? More what?" He had to jump backwards to dodge another ferocious attack from the furious girl. "You mean…you don't want to be my childhood friend anymore?"

"_…You!_"

Suddenly, Houki swayed and went down on her knees, throwing her katana aside and clutched her head.

"Houki!" When he rushed forward to his stricken friend he paused, sniffed her with a dead serious face. "Hey, Houki. Have you been drinking?"

"W-What? Don't…don't get too close to me!" She looked alarmed at how near Ichika's face was to hers, tried to push him away, but her arms faltered on his shoulders. A tear fell down her crimson cheek. "Tell me, please tell me that we're more than just friends… My heart ached when I had to leave the dojo… I thought I'd never, ever get to see you again…"

"Houki…"

"I…" Her fingers dug into his yukata. "I can never forget the memories we shared when we practiced kendo together back then…"

"…"

"I-I…I liked you, always liked you—since that day!" she shouted at his face, tears flowing endlessly down her red face. She pulled him closer and hiccoughed. "Ichika…"

"Uh…huh? H-H-H-Houki? W-Wait—" He remained frozen on his spot, utterly bewildered at her sudden confession. _She is definitely drunk._

"Eh…Houki, you shouldn't have drunk alcohol. Look at you." He pried her fists off his shoulders. "Let's go back, okay?"

"No…don't leave me…again…"

He sighed, stood up and pulled Houki to her feet. "Let's go, alright?" But she wobbled and fainted right into his arms.

"Houki…? Hey, Houki!"

"So."

He looked up at the voice of his sister, who stood cross-armed at the door. "I guess that kind of stuff is still too strong for her."

"Chi…Chifuyu-nee? What do you mean by that?" He carried the unconscious Houki in his arms and stood up. "Don't tell me…_you_ are the one who gave her—?"

"She came into my room and asked for some. So I let her try the red wine that Tabane dumped in my luggage." She sighed. "Just get her to the sick bay."

"But why would you let her…?"

"I pitied her for caring too much about my dumb little brother." With that, she returned back to her room.

Then, Houki grabbed on to his yukata and murmured, "Ichika…don't leave me again…please…"

He smiled gently and breathed into her ear. "I won't leave you again, Houki. I promise. We'll be friends forever, right?"

"B-Baka…Ichika…"

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><p><em>Infinite Stratos: Sweet Wine<em> © kurotsuba.

_IS: Infinite Stratos_ © Izuru Yumizuru.

Inspiration:  
><em>Tale of the Orange Bird<em> by Kenta Namiki.


	2. POV: Houki

**PHASE 2  
><strong>**HOUKI**

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><p><em>What a strange dream.<em>

Houki Shinonono opened her eyes and got up. She felt dizzy, and her head was still very painful. It took her quite some time to recognize where she was—the sick bay.

_Huh? Why am I here?_

She unconsciously reached out for the wooden katana placed next to her. The familiar sense of touch silenced the turmoil in her confused heart, and the memory from last night dawned upon her.

_Ichika._

Her face went scarlet at the thought of her childhood friend… No, more than a childhood friend. Her crush.

_Crush? What am I thinking about?_ She threw the katana across the room, breathing heavily. _Yes, just admit it—he's your crush!_

She shouldn't deny her true feelings, yet her mind disagreed with her heart. She flopped back onto the futon again and buried herself under the sheets.

_Ichika, Ichika, Ichika…_

She kicked off the blanket and fumed in irritation. The harder she tried to block out his face, the more firmly his smile was stuck in her aching head. Then, suddenly, the door slid open, and Ichika Orimura stepped in, with the same smile she thought of on his cheery face. "Houki! You're awake! Are you okay now?"

"I-Ichika…"

"Here." He placed a small glass bottle into her palm. "This should help you to ease your headache. You know that you don't have the stomach for liquor, why did you ask for wine from Chifuyu-nee? No wonder you didn't seem to be yourself yesterday. I was really worried for you, y'know."

She began to blush. "How…did you know—?"

"Chifuyu-nee told me. And I should've noticed the sweet smell from you earlier." He ruffled his hair casually. "Well, just rest here for today. I'm going off for breakfast." He turned to leave the sick bay.

"Wait, Ichika!" She rushed forward and grabbed him by his waist.

"Eh? H-H-Houki?"

"Don't…move. Just stay…with me."

"Uh…I-I haven't had my breakfast yet…" He pulled her arms off him and turned to face her…

When she pulled him to her face and planted her lips on his.

… …

Finally, she realized what she was doing, and she pushed him away roughly, her face in a deep shade of red. For some reason, her heart soared with joy, beating faster and faster at the accomplishment.

Ichika stood stunned on his spot, unable to react to the sudden happening. Patches of pink crept onto his cheeks, and he stammered, "W-W-W-What d-did y-y-you j-just do to m-me?"

She felt like chuckling at his hilarious expression, but stopped herself almost immediately. She then replied him with a crimson-faced pout.

He stared at her for a moment before he moved closer to her, his eyes never leaving hers. "Houki…"

She widened her eyes (which were still locked with Ichika's) in shock. _Is he…is he finally making his move? He's not playing dumb now, is he?_ "I…Ichika—" She closed her eyes and waited for it to come…

But she only felt his cool hand on her forehead.

"Hmm, you don't seem to have a fever…maybe your headache hasn't subdued yet…?"

Anger bubbled inside her. She slapped his hand away.

"Houki? What's wrong?"

She snatched the wooden katana off the tatami and smacked his back with all her might. "_I hate you, you idiot! Go and die already!_"

* * *

><p><strong>TO BE CONTINUED…?<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Infinite Stratos: Sweet Wine<em> © kurotsuba.

_IS: Infinite Stratos_ © Izuru Yumizuru.


	3. Afterword: Author's Notes

**AFTERWORD  
><strong>**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

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><p>I originally uploaded this fan fiction on my old account on FFnet, but decided to move it to my new account in order to shake off some irksome stalkers. I am surprised and thankful for all the kind support I've received here—honestly speaking, I wrote this not because I'm a fan of this anime, but merely as an experimental attempt at pairing stories. I'm not a big fan of romance stories, and truthfully I have zero experience when it comes to teenage love—to think I'm a teen myself too. (What an irony.)<p>

It all happened when I helped out with a bit of beta-reading for my friend Kenta Namiki's fanfic titled _Tale of the Orange Bird_, also hosted on this very site. As I was editing his opening paragraph, I had the sudden inspiration to write one. I didn't copy his work, because his was Ichika x Charlotte, whereas mine was Ichika x Houki. Our beginnings are pretty similar—he used the opening I suggested when I edited his work.

Another thing is, at that time when I went to check out the archive for IS fanfics here, I saw that most of them are Ichika x Char, and a handful of Ichika x Laura. That makes me more determined to write this, a dedication to Houki fans and Ichika x Houki shippers. Oh, just to make myself clear: I do not ship for any particular pairing. I only feel that someone should try other possible pairings to spice up the archive. (Uh, that sounds pretty wrong…?) It would be quite boring to see the same pair repeating over and over again, right?

I noticed that slash and pairing fanfics are extremely popular on this site, so I finally mustered enough courage to pen this down. This is my first time writing such kind of stories, and being a pretty critical person to myself, I daresay that this piece of work is far from perfect—it definitely still needs a lot of polishing.

This twoshot is **solely based on the anime adaptation** of Izuru Yumizuru's Japanese light novel series, _IS: Infinite Stratos_. I have to emphasize the fact that this story is a direct sequel to the anime only as I've yet to read that far in the light novels, so I do appreciate if people don't start to compare this with the light novel and bombard me by pointing out the so-called 'mistakes'. I actually showed this story to my friends who have watched the anime before and took the pain to make sure that the canon characters did not go out of character. **I do get complains every now and then that Ichika is too dense in this story—for your information, he is really very dense, be it in the anime or the original light novel. Please stop flaming me about Ichika being a complete romance idiot because he obviously is one, period.**

Another thing: I wrote this right after the end of episode 12 of the anime, way before the OVA was even announced for release. I know that the OVA has confirmed Ichika x Houki as the official canon pair (for the anime series), but whatever it is, I feel that this pair really needs more love.

Some supporters actually expressed queries about whether I'll be continuing this sweet tale of the cute pair, seeing that it is an open ending. I am sorry to say that for now this is where I end—I may consider continuing it, if I have the inspiration and drive to write more in the future. I'm currently still schooling, so my priorities are my studies, and therefore my progress with story writing is extremely slow—I'm often on long hiatus because of my hectic school work.

Once again, I thank my wonderful supporters—my friends whom I showed this work to, and all my beloved reviewers who enjoyed my humble writing—for helping me to make this fanfic a success. Appreciated!

Until then!

—kurotsuba


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